Here is one of the first socket LGA-1156 motherboards in the mini-ITX form-factor, certainly the first one based on the Intel P55 chipset. Packed in its 6.7 x 6.7 inch PCB are a 6 phase digital PWM circuit powering the CPU (socket made by LOTES), two DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, and a decent utilization of the feature-set of the P55 PCH, which is cooled by a tiny low-profile heatsink. The PCH gives out three internal SATA 3 Gbps ports, and one powered eSATA port.

The 8-channel HD Audio also takes care of optical and co-axial SPDIF connectivity. Gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 2.0 ports make for the rest of the rear-panel. Two headers make room for four more USB 2.0 ports. The lone expansion slot is a generous PCI-Express 2.0 x16, which will accommodate any PCI-Express addon card. You will especially need it, as the P55 platform relies on discrete graphics. With its ABS II, debug LED, and rear-panel clear CMOS button, the board also tries to be as overclocker-friendly as it can afford to be, with its limited resources. Its pricing is yet to be known, though the launch isn't very far off.

Very cool! Bravo to DFI for trying to keep up with the times, let's just hope they can actually make this board available in retail channels other than just Asia and it doesn't have crazy quirks like many other DFI boards tend to be plagued with. We might have a winner here!

How long do you think it will be until Zotac has a P55 mini-ITX board out too?

heat???????..... surely a case thats going to be designed to fit this isnt going to do very well with the heat?

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The ideal case for this is the Silverstone Sugo SG05. The front 120mm fan creates great airflow, and there is room for a CPU cooler up to 82mm tall. Someone at [H] managed to cram a Corsair VX450 and the H50 in there, so an OCed i7 ITX build with a HD5xx0 would definitely be a possibility